At what price, justice?

Like it or not, money is the fuel on which governments run.  That goes for every aspect of government, from legislatures to infrastructure to the justice system. Heads of state agencies are constantly petitioning, questioning, and cajoling their state legislatures–the folks with the power of the purse–to provide more money. For their part, the legislators have to keep the government running while satisfying the taxpayers that they aren’t asking too much from the public. And, if there’s one rule that applies in every instance, it’s that there’s never enough fuel; never enough money to quite get the job done to everyone’s satisfaction.

Things came to a head in Missouri, recently.  That’s where the head of Missouri’s beleaguered public defenders’ office, Michael Barrett, took action against the state’s own governor, Jay Nixon.  Fed up with what he perceived as the slighting of his department’s mission, Barrett said he was using a provision of state law that allows him in extraordinary circumstances to delegate legal representation “to any member of the state bar of Missouri.” And Nixon is a member of that state bar.   So Barrett appointed (or maybe a better term is “conscripted”) Nixon to represent an indigent defendant in Cole County, the county where Missouri’s state capital, Jefferson City, is located.  As a result, Nixon can’t really claim that it’s not his regular residence.

Providing counsel to poor people who face incarceration is the obligation of the state. It’s not fair to go after private attorneys who are trying to pay the rent when they had nothing to do with contributing to this, Barrett said in an interview.  And he’s not wrong.

Still, there are plenty of arguments about the separation of powers that could be raised here, and one has to think that Barrett’s act is more of a political statement than anything else.  For his part, Nixon has labeled Barrett’s action unconstitutional, and he has a point.  But, regardless, it should make us all think.  Ever since Clarence Earl Gideon stood before a court and had the audacity to ask for a lawyer, the right to counsel has become a sacred part of our law. (In a bit of cosmic irony, Gideon was a Missourian.)  Effective assistance of counsel is a cornerstone of what it means to have rights in this country.  If that can be denied because of a shortage of funds, we have problems.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” How we treat our most vulnerable is a reflection of who we are.  As much as the right to counsel implicates the Fifth Amendment, it implicates our societal conscience.  Barrett’s action should prompt us all to ask the value of that conscience and what we are willing to pay to protect it.